No, a dark edge is not always a sign of a problem. It could be poor quality coloring of the pig. If it develops over time in an older pig, it might be necrosis but you wouldn't know unless you let it get to the point where the skin fell off.

Coloring that isn't consistent with the desired breed standard is poor pigment. Red pigs are supposed to have pinkish ears, footpads and mucous membranes in general. All of the exposed skin attached to red hairs is supposed to be pink. Unfortunately, there is something with the black gene there and sometimes the skin is colored dark or black. Just like black pigs are supposed to have black ears and mucous membranes, reds can have it (black) but it is non-showable and undesirable in that world.

Me first. I was thinking July 1st. I may have to send out invites soon! Everyone has to see my house and swim in the pool before I move again.

I forgot to add Rhett had a UTI scare while I was in WA with the cavy crew. Ottosmom took excellent care of him. His bloody clotty urine cleared right up with a course of TMS. His x-rays and ultrasound all came back clear of stones or sludge.

Thanks, Josephine! I added them in. It's not something you can do because they have to be uploaded to this server and the thread edited. But it means if yahoo goes down, they're still here (also quicker to load as we only have the photos, not all the extra stuff).

I moved this thread to the Med Forum since I'm too lazy to start another Reference Thread on Rhett right now.

Unfortunately, Monday night (only a few days after finishing a 2-week course of TMS), the hematuria started again. Fortunately, it stops within 12 hours of initiating another course of TMS, but I think given all of his tests in the last couple of weeks, this might make him a candidate for Interstitial Cystitis. I'll have to see if we can get a culture post finishing this round of TMS.

Here we go again. This morning he's hunched up and passing frank blood and blood clots from his penis. Poor guy. Couldn't have been better timing, though. With my new job, he'll just go to work with me and I can get him worked in and try (again) for a cysto and recheck rads.

Geez. I'm sure glad we didn't place this one in a new home. He's becoming more high maintenance. I feel a hard circular mass in his abdomen. He was clear of sludge or stones in May, but I guess it could be a bladder. If it is, it looks like trouble. It also could be cecum, I guess. That would be a better alternative.

It looks like he has a stone in his urethra. Very painful and irregular bladder today. We were able to express a small amount of urine, but not enough to do a urinalysis. It looks like his bladder is larger this afternoon than this morning. Rads show pretty much that story, but they are difficult to interpret. Don't see any obvious stones in the bladder, but there are some suspicious more dense spots (a few highs and lows) in the bladder area.

I gave him meloxicam this morning. Good thing. It looks like we're going to mask him down at closing tonight, try to catheterize and propulse the stone back into the bladder and do a cystotomy/biopsy. Poor Rhett.